Pakistan is expanding its nuclear arsenal to deter an American attack on its
status as an atomic power, according to India's former foreign secretary.

Asia's triangular arms race has traditionally reflected the rivalries between India and China and India and Pakistan, but according to an influential former adviser to Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, Pakistan now regards the United States as a potential threat.

In an article for The Hindu newspaper, Shyam Saran said Islamabad had invested in a new generation of plutonium-based warheads, increased the size range of its arsenal, and improved the accuracy of its missiles.

Washington has voiced its concerns over the build-up in the region but believes it reflects Pakistan's long-standing fear of arch rival India's conventional force superiority.

But according to Mr Saran, Islamabad's burgeoning nuclear arsenal is increasingly aimed at deterring its fractious ally in the war on terror, the United States. Its fear that Washington may strike to wipe out Pakistan's nuclear capability dates back to just after the 9/11 attacks when then President Musharraf said it had been warned to support the war on terror or face being "bombed back to the stone age."

Despite his acquiescence, relations between the two countries have been strained ever since and reached their lowest point following the 2011 special forces raid which killed Osama bin Laden at his home in the centre of Pakistan's main garrison town Abbotabad.

Related Articles

"While the immediate threat to its strategic assets passed, Pakistan's suspicions of US intentions in this regard have now risen to the level of paranoia," Mr Saran said.

His comments follow the latest in a series of missile tests last week when the Pakistan Army confirmed it had fired a nuclear-capable Hatf-V medium range missile capable of hitting Indian cities as far east as Bangalore.

Lieutenant-General Talat Masood, a retired senior Pakistan Army commander and nuclear expert, said Mr Saran's claims had some truth in them. "I would not say it [Pakistan's growing nuclear capability] was meant to counter America – that would be suicidal. But there has always been a fear in Pakistan's strategic community and government, in the recent past, a feeling that America is unfavourably inclined towards our nuclear programme and if things got worse it could neutralise our nuclear weapons capability, go after them," he said.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute voiced its concerns about the nuclear weapon build-up earlier this year after India developed a nuclear submarine and Pakistan unveiled a series of short range missiles.

Pakistan is believed to have more nuclear warheads than India – 110 to 100 – and Washington remains concerned about the security of its nuclear bases.